Trouble playing 24 bit Apple Lossless files via Rockbox

[happykev]

Hey all-

Up until a week ago, when I installed the most recent Rockbox build, for my iriver ihp-120, I was able to play 24 bit/96khz ALAC files just fine. I can no longer do this. It looks like the track is playing, the time advances, but I get no sound from the iriver. All my 24 bit ALAC files do this but my 16/44.1 ALAC files play just fine.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks-
Kevin

[Llorean]

What SVN revision are you currently using? "A week ago" isn't the most recent any more, by a long shot. And you're definitely using an official, unpatched build?

[happykev]

the build is probably from a few weeks ago.

The 24/96 ALAC files "play" on my iriver, but I get no sound.

Is this a common problem?

I guess I'll try to install the current build...

Thx-
Kevin

[Llorean]

Nobody has reported this problem but you, so far. We ask in our guidelines that you be using the most current official version before reporting something.

[happykev]

I have a feeling my issue is related to 2 things:

1) Perhaps the new build for the ihp-120 doesn't allow for 24 bit/96khz ALAC playback

2) My hard drive is failing.

I used to be able to play 24/96 ALAC and FLAC files just fine and now I can't.

When transferring certain files to my iriver, I often get cyclic redundancy errors.

I think it might be time to switch to a 32GB Compact Flash drive.

Thx for any help you can give me.

Kev



I found this post, which is sorta similar to my problems. I get a lot of "skipping to the next song" issues and now I'm having trouble adding music to my iriver due to data errors and cyclic redundancy messages,

Methinks my hard drive on the iriver is shot.

Kevin

[Totally Wired]

I've also been experiencing trouble with some unprotected AAC files downloaded from the iTunes Store. One particular file leads to a data abort each time I use it, another often starts off playing with no sound the way the original poster describes. I've tried removing all tag info from the files yet the problem persists. If these two formats are decoded using the same decoder, is it possible the problems are linked?

Edit: Just to clarify, This happens with today's most recent build and the daily from 6/08/08.

[happykev]

Hey all-

I am running the most recent build and I can't seem to get 24 bit 96khz Apple Lossless files to play correctly on my iriver ihp-120.

It appears the song is playing but I get no sound out of my player.

Has anyone been successful playing these hi-rez files?

Thanks-
Kevin

[Chronon]

Totally Wired: Okay.  As always, revision numbers are more precise than dates.  Can you track down which revision introduced this problem? 


happykev: don't start multiple posts about the same problem.  I merged the two topics.

[Totally Wired]

Totally Wired: Okay.  As always, revision numbers are more precise than dates.  Can you track down which revision introduced this problem? 

I went as far back as 17647 and the problem was still present. I've also noticed after stripping the tags from all the affected files and rebuilding them, anything beyond the first track of an album will play fine, while the first track of the album will either be skipped or lead to a data abort.

[Lear]

AAC and ALAC are handled by different decoders. The parsing of the container is shared though, but if playback starts, the problem isn't likely to be there.

I tried a 24 bit/96 kHz FLAC file on an H140 and an e200, so it isn't any generic problem related to the resolution of the audio data at least. Don't have any ALAC file to test with though. Can iTunes create such files?

As for the AAC problem, without more details about the files it is difficult to tell what the problem is. Long files (1 hour or more) are known to cause problems though.

[Chronon]

I don't have any ALAC to test at the moment either.  As far as I know iTunes is the primary tool to create ALAC encoded files.  I was not planning to install iTunes on my system so I don't have access to a way to encode these files.

[happykev]

yes iTunes can encode wav files to ALAC (Apple Lossless).

I deleted all 24/96 ALAC files from my ihp-120 and I'm gonna try to play a 24/96 file in FLAC format to see if it plays properly on my player.

If so, I'll just convert my 24/96 ALAC files back to FLAC.

I am also having issues during normal playback (mp3 and ALAC). Often during a song, the player "chokes" on the song and jumps to the next one. Is this a problem with the Rockbox build or possibly my hard drive?

Thanks-
Kevin

[Lear]

If you're recompressing your files, you might consider converting them (at least for use with Rockbox) to 44.1 kHz, maybe 16 bits as well. Rockbox will convert the audio to that format before sending it to the output anyway, and the conversion to 44.1 kHz is known to not be of very high quality.

[happykev]

yeah I could try that too but I used to be able to play 24/96 FLAC just fine, even if the iriver does downsample to 16/44.1 before output.

Kev

[Lear]

I just tried a 24-bit 96 kHz ALAC in the simulator and that didn't work (it crashes within the decoder). There hasn't been any codec-specific changes for seven months, so unless you upgraded from a very old build, I'm not sure what the problem could be.